Internal Red Light Therapy
Light Therapy for Inside You
LELO has released the “MONA™ Spectra”. This appears to be the first commercial red light therapy device sex toy.
If you aren’t familiar with LELO, they produce high end, high quality products. So don’t expect anything cheap.
https://www.lelo.com/mona-spectra
This has been introduced at a price of $299, but they usually will run sales so if you are budget minded, have patience and wait for them to offer a sale.
What is interesting is that this isn’t just red light therapy or near infrared but actually has LEDs for Red, Green, Blue and Near Infrared.
Unfortunately most research reports power ratings as mW/cm2 or w/m2 but LELO only gives us raw power ratings:
Red – 1.4 watts (620 nm)
Green – 2.1 watts (530 nm)
Blue – 2.1 watts (470 nm)
Near Infrared – 0.45W (850 nm)
For those only familiar with red light therapy, blue light barely penetrates skin (less than a tenth of an inch), green light about twice as much penetration, with red light penetrating about four times as much as blue (about a third of an inch) while near infrared can penetrate an inch and a half deep.
Power delivered depends dramatically on distance from skin, thus these low power devices can be surprisingly effective because they are touching the skin. Power also drops off dramatically as the light penetrates deeper.
Some noted benefits of the different colors are: blue increases nitric oxide; generates reactive oxide species (ROS), fights infections (anti inflammatory) and increases alertness; green increases blood flow and improves red blood cell function. Blue interacts with riboflavin (B2), curcumin and chlorophyl. It’s likely that green would interact with chlorella, spirulina, quercetin, rutin, and carotenoids. Green light has a “calming effect on the skin” – whatever that means! Isn’t my skin always calm?
You can only select different light settings by using the (bluetooth) mobile device (phone) app (IOS or Android).
Without actually buying one, there is no way for me to compare the power of this device to the other devices I’ve reviewed. I am tempted to buy one just so that I can measure it with actual test equipment to see how it compares. The best bargain I’ve tested of the devices I own is the Zarbaha lamp (54 watts) which is very powerful for both red light and near infrared. The NovaaLab handheld, also very powerful, is a bit in a different class and is not cheap (currently on sale for $225).
Keep in mind that the other factor with power is time. So a low power device you would need to use for much longer than a high power device.
The NovaaLab can become painfully hot and thus you wouldn’t want something that powerful in direct contact with your skin, thus it’s probably a good thing that the LELO device is not super powerful.
LELO recommends 15 minutes per day. Have fun and get healthy at the same time?